Classes..

Castel Sant'Angelo

Locks on a sign.

     So, after the first week of class, my summer is looking well, busy. Both of my classes have a lot more readings than I was led to believe. And both of them seem to like to reschedule and to do things off campus. This would be much less stressful if the bus system was faster. Although Wednesday I was able to stick to the metro instead of the buses. Still, getting halfway across Rome in thirty minutes is practically impossible. And spending more than six hours outside walking around Rome from 12-6 gets really, really hot! By the time we came back all I wanted to do was sleep, preferably floating in an indoor pool. So I made dinner and got gelato, because gelato makes everything better.

Road looking away from Castel Sant'Angelo

Road with street vendors on the way to St Peter's

     I'm taking one class called Urban Social Photography. Which basically means photojournalism but in an urban area. Anyway we're learning about the right composition of photos and some basic photography skills. And we went to St Peter's Wednesday to take photos of people. It was pretty fun, and unbelievably hot. Of course we also took pictures of buildings, as visitors in Rome, how could we not? But I got some interesting shots of people just hanging out inside the square. We ended up having to leave early because we had to get to the Colosseo.

This is my favorite picture I took all day.
It's a street vendor outside St. Peter's.

The background is over-exposed but I still like the subject matter.
An old guy drinking a beer and smoking inside the square.

I got lots of pictures of this girl doing stuff, she happened
 to be sitting next to me and  well, taking pictures of people
was the assignment.

     The other class I'm taking is Art and Archaeology of Ancient Rome. This class, I love! It's a lot like other culture classes I've taken except with more focus on (of course) Ancient Rome. Most of the classes I've taken so far have had their focus from Renaissance or WW2 until modern times, so it's fun to study something new. And this helps to give a better explanation of who Italians are, and why they are the way they are.

An Etruscan Urn.

     Our 2nd day of class we met at the Etruscan museum at Villa Giulia. Villa Giulia is a beautiful villa that was commissioned by one of the popes, transformed into a storage facility for weapons and has now been converted into an Etruscan museum. The Etruscans were people who lived at the same time as Romans and Greeks starting from 700BC to about 100BC. They were very civilized and traded with many different places. Most of their buildings however were destroyed because instead of building with marble or other stones, they often used terracotta and wood. Most of what we know about Etruscans comes from their graves/tombs. I love learning about these ancient civilizations that before now I only vaguely knew they existed.

Il Colosseo

Il Colosseo

     Wednesday we met at the Colosseo, and talked about Nero's Golden House, and about several of the other Roman Emperors. We of course talked about how the Coloseo was constructed, and how it was used. Apparently it really could have been used for mock naval battles. I haven't finished the readings for this yet, so I don't have as many fun details to share. But Thursday we met at the Arch of Constantine and went to the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. It was fun, but tiring.